At almost every single MotoGP race this year, a new victor has been crowned. At the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, polesitter Maverick Vinales was able to turn his first-place start into a win. But he very nearly didn’t achieve the win had it not been for a late-race crash that took out the leading rider.
That isn’t to say it was an easy ride for Vinales. The rider did manage to secure a solid setup during warm-up, but he started the race on the wrong tires and had to work doubly hard to stay up front.
Premac rider Francesco Bagnaia pushed into the lead early in the race, opening up a large gap between himself and the competition while chaos struck behind him. Valentino Rossi slid and ultimately had to withdraw from competition. Brad Binder crashed.
It was, unfortunately, Bagnaia’s race to lose. On lap 21, he was managing a one-second gap between himself and second-place Vinales when he lost control in Turn 6 and crashed.
Vinales took the lead, and he didn’t look back.
Disappointment came for Fabio Quartararo, who was sitting firmly in third place and battling with Joan Mir for second. He exceeded track limits one too many times and was served with a long lap penalty. A long lap penalty requires a rider to ride through a specifically designated line through the run-off asphalt that is several seconds slower than the racing line.
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In this case, Quartararo did not serve the penalty because it came on the last lap. He was served a three-second time penalty instead. As a result, Quartararo finished in fourth.
The ride of the race might just have to go to Mir, though. The rider, who started back in 11th, finished a solid second place.
Vinales becomes the sixth rider to win a MotoGP event throughout this year’s seven races. Whether the trend continues remains to be seen, but 2020 has promised to be one of the most exciting seasons in quite some time.
The top 10 is as follows:
- Maverick Vinales
- Joan Mir
- Pol Espargaro
- Fabio Quartararo
- Miguel Oliveira
- Takaaki Nakagami
- Alex Marquez
- Andrea Dovisioso
- Franco Morbidelli
- Johann Zarco